


Friends Like We

by laniew1



Series: Royal Family of Antar [2]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:53:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24196240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laniew1/pseuds/laniew1
Summary: The first time he meets Rath the Seventeenth is at his fifth birthday party.The beginning of Zan and Rath.
Relationships: Rath/Zan (Roswell TV)
Series: Royal Family of Antar [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1745704
Comments: 6
Kudos: 50





	Friends Like We

**Friends Like We**

The first time he meets Rath the Seventeenth is at his fifth birthday party.

It was filled with the children of _appropriate_ people as his mother liked to say, which he didn’t quite understand.

He _did_ know that he didn’t care for a lot of the children of those _appropriate_ people. The only one he met that day that he had even wanted to spend time was Rath the Seventeenth and his father had nodded approvingly which meant that Zan had done something right.

********************************

Rath arrives with a suitcase and looks very lost when he is deposited in his room. Zan doesn’t tell him that they’re going to be fast friends because he can tell that Rath is overwhelmed by the room which he’ll tell him later is bigger than the entire apartment that he lived in with his mother.

********************************

He already had a steady string of lessons and tutors and now that Rath is there he attends with him. Having someone beside him means they go faster because he has someone to play with during breaks.

It also means he has someone to talk to at night when it’s dark in their room and when they’re nine Rath tells him under the cloak of darkness, like it’s a secret that can’t be shared in the morning light; “I don’t want to be like my father.”

Zan knows this is because of the extra classes that Rath is being taken to. The ones that Zan is not allowed at because he is High Prince and does not need to know military tactics or how to shoot a weapon or defend himself.

He is told over and over that he has and will have people that will do those things for him.

“What do you want to do?” Zan asks, even though in the end it won’t matter, Zan at nine already knows he will be King and he already knows that Rath will be a commander.

Rath is silent for long enough that Zan pushes back his covers and takes the twelve steps that separate their beds and climbs in beside him. Curling up on his side and touching Rath’s arm.

“I want to fly,” Rath whispers and he sounds so sad that Zan knows he’s already talked to his father about it and his father had likely listed out all the reasons why Rath would not be able to fly.

“I’m sorry,” Zan says. They’re the only words he can offer him.

********************************

Vilandra the Eighteenth arrives at the beginning of the summer they turn seven. He’s not sure why he needs _another_ companion. Rath fills all the empty spaces in his life.

She’s a girl, but she gets up to just as much mischief as they do and _she’s_ actually the one that convinces them to slide down the long hallway outside their rooms in stockinged feet. Zan takes the blame when their sliding results in a vase that the nannies yell is priceless and older then all of them; because he’s the one least likely to be punished out of the three of them.

********************************

Rath leaves at the beginning of summer before they turn ten to spend several weeks with his mother. Zan doesn’t care for this, it leaves him alone in the house with no lessons to keep him occupied and no Rath for him to occupy himself with.

He hates it, hates the silence when he’s been accustomed to Rath’s presence filling all the holes in his life.

Vilandra is there though so at least he’s not completely alone, he knows his father is hopeful to make a match between them when it comes to be the time for those things.

Zan is not worried on who his future spouse or spouses will be, he is more worried on whether Rath will forget all about him before he returns.

“I think you worry on nothing,” Vilandra laughs at him, he’s already spoken at length on his fears.

“He’ll have had friends he left behind when he came here,” Zan frets and Vilandra continues laughing at him. “What if he forgets us?”

“He’ll be back,” she promises him and they’re sprawled on chairs on the balcony outside his room. Periodically someone will peer out to make sure they’re up to no mischief.

“I don’t know why his mother can’t come here to visit him,” he says with a sigh.

********************************

It’s a month after Rath has been gone, he’s due to come back at weeks end for their birthdays and Zan can barely contain his excitement.

The air in the residence feels wrong when he and Vilandra come back from an outing with one of their nannies to find his father waiting in the large entry way for him.

The look on his face is serious, more serious then he’s ever seen it before and it fills him with dread.

“No,” he says and he goes to back out the doorway but Vilandra is there holding onto his arm keeping him in place, the nanny has a hand on his shoulder.

“Zan,” his father starts and Zan shakes his head.

********************************

There’d been an attempt made on Rath and his mother while they’d been out shopping, Rath is still alive he is told, his mother is not.

“We can share mine,” Zan says, he doesn’t cry, he can’t, not in front of his father at least. He’s jealous of Vilandra crying next to him, he wishes he could do that just so the horrible pressure in his chest would release some.

General Rath the Sixteenth comes back two days after they’re told of the situation, they’ve placed Rath in a stasis pod and he’s so still inside it that for a moment Zan thinks they lied to him and that he’s dead. But then he sees the movement of his chest and knows that Rath is still breathing in there.

He looks pale and there are marks all over his face and his arms, likely on the parts of his body not visible to them as well.

“He fought them off,” the General says in a hushed voice and Zan knows he shouldn’t be listening, but he needs to know. Vilandra is silent beside him.

“Do we know who yet?” his father asks. “And whether your son or your wife or both were the targets?”

“Zan,” his mother admonishes.

“They don’t know, they’re still investigating, I should have insisted she come here for the summer,” the General says. Zan peers around the corner and can see him sitting on the couch, his mother is beside him, his father sits in the chair in front of them.

“Security said the threats were not valid,” his father says. “You didn’t know this would happen.”

“My gut said something was wrong, I should have listened to it, it’s never led me astray before. But I didn’t and now my son might not wake, and my wife is dead and what am I to do now?”

“The healers are confident that Rath just needs time to heal, and he’ll just stay here from now on,” his mother says and Zan wants to smile but can’t because Rath’s mother is still gone.

********************************

They’re allowed to spend an hour with him in the morning, sitting by the pod and Zan hovers over it pressing hands to the glass and talking in a low voice because the healers say that Rath can likely hear him, hear them.

So they tell him about their day and what they’ve been doing and how worried their parents are.

The healers say he’s getting better, and the marks on his skin are fading though they speak in quiet voices with his parents and the General and say that they need to wait just a little longer.

“I’m tired of waiting,” Zan says, “So you need to wake up soon or they may remove your bed from my room so I can have more room to play.”

********************************

They open the pod finally and Rath wakes 36 days after he lost his mother. The General sets him appointments with mind healers and Zan doesn’t know if he talks to them, he’s certainly not talking to him or Vilandra.

He’s so quiet and Zan doesn’t know what to do for him, so he stays quiet with him. The three of them putting blankets on the balcony and watching the sky. Sometimes he’ll look over and there will be such despair on Rath’s face that he doesn’t know what to do for him.

Vilandra has her own room that she disappears into at curfew and Rath has horrid nightmares. Most nights Zan ends curled up in bed with him as Rath sobs into his shoulder or pillow.

“I should have been able to save her,” Rath says twelve days after he wakes.

“How?”

“I don’t know, but I think my dad blames me.”

********************************

They have a big formal party when they turn ten, the three of them within weeks of each other. It’s filled with the same children that have been at his every birthday celebration since he was old enough to remember them.

Rath and Vilandra hide with him in a corner about halfway through the party and Vilandra gives them each a simple leather wrap for their wrists, Zan gives Rath a book on flying and Vilandra a simple chain pendant.

Rath gives them both pretty blades and Zan turns it over in his hand and can see their house crests, all three together and his name etched into his, a glance over shows Vilandra’s name on hers and she’s grinning.

“I’ll show you how to use them,” Rath says. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

He knows that Rath has given them weapons so they can protect themselves if they need to. So he doesn’t end up losing them the way he’d lost his mother.

********************************

They spend all their time together, the three of them. They’re his favorite people in the entire world and he’s so used to their presence in his life that it takes him just a bit by surprise to look up one day at fourteen and see Rath and want to kiss him, he also wants to kiss Vilandra.

He wants them both and he’s known Rath was meant to be his since just after they turned ten. Vilandra is also meant to be his though if he tells anyone that he knows this he knows they’ll be sent away because they’re considered too young to be making those choices.

He doesn’t tell either of them what he knows, mostly because he’s not sure what Rath’s reaction would be, though he thinks he’s seen Rath look at him sometimes in a way that he hopes means that if he does someday attempt to touch him that Rath won’t stab him with the knife he gifted him at ten.

********************************

“He’s so very pretty,” Vilandra says one day as they’re watching Rath train with some of his father’s soldiers, Rath is growing again, is slightly taller than him for once though Zan is sure when his next growth spurt comes he’ll once more be taller.

Though Vilandra might end up taller than both of them, she’s lean and willowy and he tucks her under his arm while they watch Rath sweat from their hiding place.

“I can see why you’re smitten,” she leans into his side.

“I’m not smitten,” he says reflexively, even though he _is_ , it’s instinct to deny it because if his father or mother find out Rath will be moved to a separate room faster then he can voice a complaint.

“You really are,” she says. “It’s okay, I think he’s slightly smitten with you as well.”

“I’m going to bond with him,” he says softly, his voice just above a whisper and Vilandra looks at him in surprise.

“Really?”

“He’s…” and he’s at a loss to explain what Rath is to him.

Besides everything.

********************************

At fifteen they’re told that Rath is to be sent away for the school year, off to attend his first year of academy.

They’ve had a calm summer, the three of them in and out of each other’s pockets, he’s almost kissed Rath twice, has kissed Vilandra once and has held Rath’s hand within his own while they were watching vids and Vilandra laid her head on one of their shoulders.

“It’s only for the year,” Rath says and his voice is shaking a bit, no one else would notice but Zan has known Rath since they were five and he knows that Rath doesn’t want to go. “We can write letters and call and…”

“You’ll come back for the summer though?” Vilandra asks from where she’s curled up with her knees to her chest and she’s not crying anymore at least.

“I don’t,” Rath shrugs helplessly. “My father was talking about taking some time away from the palace and…”

Zan grabs at him, pulls him into a hug and will never admit that he’s clinging to him. He knows this is happening because someone had to have seen one of the kisses that hasn’t happened. They’re sending Rath away because every single older person not in the room with them will say they’re too young to be thinking about forever.

But Rath is his.

He’s _his_.

“I’ll talk to my father,” Rath says, voice muffled by his shoulder and Zan pulls back, hands on Rath’s face and tilts their heads together. Rath’s hands covers his and Zan knows that he’s going to pull away, going to pull back and leave him, them… and he breaks a little.

He breathes out a sob that he can’t hold back.

Rath’s mind is open to him, has almost _always_ been open to him and Zan sinks into it as he presses his lips against Rath’s.

Rath’s lips move under his, it’s a first kiss that is unpracticed but hurried and he feels the moment that Rath realizes that he can sink into Zan’s mind and it’s…

He knows he’s screaming in his mind _don’t leave me, don’t leave me, please stay, please stay_ over and over.

Their lips are just touching, he has his eyes closed and he can feel Rath all around him and then the bond solidifying between them.

Rath gasps, hands tightening against his and Zan breathes and thinks, _now they can’t take you away from me._

********************************

“You’ll break it of course,” his father says.

“No,” Zan says, he has Rath’s hand clenched in his and their palms are both sweating. Rath hasn’t looked up at where the General is looking between the two of them with narrowed eyes.

“Zan, love,” his mother starts. “You’re both children, you can’t possibly know….”

“I do, I’ve known I was meant to bond to him since we were ten,” he says, Rath’s hand tightens around his.

“Rath,” the General says, he takes a step forward from where he’s been standing off to the side.

“No,” Rath says, his voice isn’t as steady as Zan’s is. Zan knows that he’s absolutely terrified of disappointing his father. “We’re not going to break the bond, I’ll go away to school like you want; but I’ll come back at breaks and for the summer.”

They look between each other and his father just breathes and his mother looks annoyed and the General… the General does not look like this is an unexpected development.

“Legally there can be no binding until you both turn sixteen,” his mother says shortly. “By our laws even at sixteen you can’t stand for yourselves so your fathers will need to stand as proxy for you.”

His father looks at the General and the General just waves a hand like this is an inconsequential detail that means nothing.

“I can delay our leaving for 24 hours only,” the General says as he turns to leave, his dad goes with him and when the door closes behind his mother crosses the room to them.

Zan bites his lip and waits for her to again demand they break the bond, instead she kisses both their cheeks gently. Strokes a hand across Zan’s head, then Rath’s, smiles gently at them then walks away.

Zan breathes, then turns and tugs Rath into his arms. Holding tight to him like Rath is doing in return.

********************************

They spend the remainder of their 24 hours together, curled up on top of Zan’s bed, holding hands and staring at each other.

There’s not enough time, he despairs, but then he closes his eyes and reaches for the bond, can feel Rath doing the same and thinks, now they have all the time in the world.

********************************

Rath still leaves, it makes his skin crawl to not have Rath within easy touching distance, he worries that Rath will still forget about him off at his school.

Zan goes to his classes, and he spends time with Vilandra and shadows his father into meetings that are always long and boring.

He daydreams about Rath returning to him, he doesn’t, but he does start receiving long rambling electronic messages about how much Rath misses him and he sends messages back that scream of the same.

There is a small party when Zan officially turns sixteen, having Vilandra there is the only thing that makes it palatable because Rath was unable to attend due to training exercises.

After the party ends they huddle together on his balcony, blanket over both their shoulders as they wait for Rath to vid-call.

“I worry that he won’t want to bond with me when the time comes,” Vilandra says softly, her head is pressed against his shoulder and he doesn’t think she’s ever noticed the way that Rath’s eyes study her.

“I think you worry on nothing,” Zan says, he kisses her forehead and she makes a noise that screams of her disbelief.

“It’s rare, but not unheard of for some to have only one bondmate,” she says sensibly.

“I know this, but that’s not going to be us,” Zan murmurs.

Rath’s call chimes in and he scrambles to press the buttons and there’s Rath’s beloved face covering the screen.

“Happy birthday,” he says and he smiles at them eyes happy at seeing them both and it’s a balm to Zan’s soul.


End file.
